Bogalusa
| Bogalusa, Louisiana | |
|---|---|
| City | |
Great Southern Lumber Company in Bogalusa, 1930s
|
|
 Location of Bogalusa in Washington Parish, Louisiana. |
|
.svg) Location of Louisiana in the United States |
|
| Coordinates: 30°46′50″N 89°51′50″W / 30.78056°N 89.86389°WCoordinates: 30°46′50″N 89°51′50″W / 30.78056°N 89.86389°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Louisiana |
| Parish | Washington |
| Incorporated | July 4, 1914 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Wendy O'Quin Perrette |
| Area | |
| • Total | 35.00 sq mi (90.64 km2) |
| • Land | 33.10 sq mi (85.74 km2) |
| • Water | 1.89 sq mi (4.90 km2) |
| Elevation | 95 ft (29 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 12,232 |
| • Estimate (2016) | 11,913 |
| • Density | 359.87/sq mi (138.95/km2) |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Area code(s) | 985 |
| FIPS code | 22-08150 |
| Website | http://www.bogalusa.org |
Bogalusa is a small city in Washington Parish, Louisiana. The population was 12,232 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Bogalusa Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Washington Parish and is also part of the larger New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area.
The name of the city derives from the Choctaw language term bogue lusa, which translates to "dark water" in English. Located in an area of pine forests, in the early 20th century this industrial city was developed as a company town, to provide worker housing and services in association with a Great Southern Lumber Company sawmill. In the late 1930s, this operation was replaced with paper mills and chemical operations.
In the early 1900s, brothers Frank Henry Goodyear and Charles W. Goodyear of Buffalo, New York, bought hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin pine forests in southeastern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi. They had already been successful in lumbering isolated areas in New York and Pennsylvania, and had developed a strategy of building railroad spurs to provide access to the forests. In 1902 they chartered the Great Southern Lumber Company (1908–38) and built its sawmill in what became Bogalusa, a company town which they built to support this rural operation. The sawmill was the largest in the world at the time. The Goodyear interests built the city of Bogalusa to house workers and supervisors, and associated infrastructure. They also built the Great Northern New Orleans Railroad to New Orleans to transport their lumber and products to market.
The city, designed by architect Rathbone DeBuys of New Orleans and built from the ground up in less than a year, had several hotels, a YMCA and YWCA, churches of all faiths, and houses for the workers and supervisors. It was called the "Magic City" due to its rapid construction. The manager of Great Southern Lumber Company was William H. Sullivan. As sawmill manager, he acted as town boss. when the city was built. After Bogalusa was incorporated as a city on July 4, 1914, Sullivan was elected as mayor by white voters (blacks had been disenfranchised), and repeatedly re-elected, serving until his death on June 26, 1929.
...
Wikipedia